Author

If you depend on a secret for your security, what do you do when the secret is discovered? If it is easy to change, like a cryptographic key, you do so. If it's hard to change, like a cryptographic system or an operating system, you're stuck. You will be vulnerable until you invest the time and money to design another system.

From Whitfield Diffie

No right of private conversation was enumerated in the Constitution. I suppose it never occurred to anyone at the time that it could be prevented.

From Whitfield Diffie

I am not convinced that lack of encryption is the primary problem. The problem with the Internet is that it is meant for communications among non-friends.

From Whitfield Diffie

People constantly face problems they've never seen before, and they have to solve them somehow. So a million people come up with a million solutions that are just a little bit different. If computing is being done by fewer resources, there will be enormous security gains by pushing things into standard practices.

From Whitfield Diffie

Cloud computing is a challenge to security, but one that can be overcome.

From Whitfield Diffie

I think that the people who are trying to shut down WikiLeaks are going to have to accept this as a fact of reality that cryptography allows you to do this kind of thing.

From Whitfield Diffie

Intellectual work is essentially a lonely process, and if you can find a way of doing something so that you're in company without being disturbed, that, for me, is the critical thing. I often get to feel isolated so often if I'm sitting either where there aren't people or isn't a view.

From Whitfield Diffie

If you have ambition, you might not achieve anything, but without ambition, you are almost certain not to achieve anything.

From Whitfield Diffie

Some people make sharp distinctions sort of between their recreational musings and their professional work. I don't make that distinction very much.

From Whitfield Diffie

I understood the importance in principle of public key cryptography but it's all moved much faster than I expected. I did not expect it to be a mainstay of advanced communications technology.

From Whitfield Diffie

Whitfield Diffie

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